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LONGUEUIL, QC, May 9 /CNW Telbec/ - The Jacques Cartier and Champlain
Bridges Incorporated (JCCBI) wishes to inform road users in the Greater
Montreal Area that several night and, mostly weekend closures, are
scheduled on the Champlain Bridge and its approaches during the next
roadwork season.

Once again this year, major roadwork will take place to continue to
ensure the safety of Champlain Bridge. Of the $212 million granted in 2009, approximately $39.1 million have
already been spent in 2009 and 2010. This year, close to $30 million
will be invested in the Champlain Bridge in order to rehabilitate the
beams, piers and bridge pier caps, to replace the expansion joints and
the central median, as well as to carry out some paving work.

The major roadwork in the Champlain Bridge corridor will take place at three different times:

First of all, from mid-May to mid-June, we will be particularly active
on the Champlain Bridge in order to completely replace the expansion
joints, and this over the course of four weekends.

In August, we will begin major paving work on the bridge, and this will
also be over the course of four weekends.

Finally, roadwork will be taking place in the federal sector of Highway
15 on the eastern viaduct, located between Atwater St. and the Nuns'
Island Bridge, over the course of three weekends starting in September.

Several weekly night closures will also be taking place, in addition to
the weekend work, in order to continue the roadwork underneath the
bridge, which began in February. Also, it is important to note that
repair work will also be taking place on the overhead part of the
Bonaventure Highway, which will require certain lane closures and
detour routes from May to October at Exit 2.

Follow the work and avoid traffic

During this roadwork, we will be implementing various mitigation
measures with our partners and recommending various detour routes so as
to limit as much as possible the impact on traffic. To remain informed,
road users will be able to follow the progress of the work on our blog www.champlainbridge.ca as well as on Twitter or via our newsletterorRSSfeed. Roadwork schedules will be updated regularly to enable road users to
remain informed of upcoming closures.

During these closures, we also recommend that road users use the Jacques-Cartier, Victoria and even Honoré-Mercier Bridges. In fact, the two lanes on the Victoria Bridge will be open in a single
direction from 9 AM to 9 PM on Saturday and Sunday to counter the
closures on the Champlain Bridge and the opening of a single lane in a
direction. The Jacques-Cartier Bridge will also be able to open three
lanes in one direction or the other depending on traffic flow.

Finally, let us note that the lanes open to traffic on the Champlain
Bridge, northbound or southbound according to the location of the
roadwork, will be narrower than usual, namely 3.3 meters.Trucks exceeding the allowed width will be asked to avoid theChamplain Bridge.

Ensuring the Safety of the Champlain Bridge

Numerous measures are taken annually to ensure the safety of the
Champlain Bridge, namely detailed inspections and major roadwork, which
began two years ago. More than fifty fiber optic sensors have also been installed on the Champlain Bridge in order to monitor
the structure live. The major work, which started in 2009, is
progressing very well. By the end of the year, close to 94% of the edge
beams and 60% of the bridge pier caps (what the beams rest on) will
have received a post-tension support.

Road and public transport users can rest assured that all measures are
taken to maintain the safety of the Champlain Bridge.

Detailed Roadwork Schedule

Here is a detailed schedule of the main weekend closures. In each case,
we have listed the NUMBER OF OPEN LANESin each direction. These major closures do require the complete closure
of one direction with a lane against the flow of traffic in the other
direction. Depending on the direction of the closure, a single lane
will be open in one direction and two in the other.

Complete replacement of the expansion joints (4 weekends in May and
June):

From Friday May 13 at 11 p.m. to Monday May 16 at 5 a.m.: 2 lanes north / 1 lane south

From Friday May 20 at 11 p.m. to Monday May 23 at 5 a.m.: 1 lane north / 2 lanes south

From Friday May 27 at 11 p.m. to Monday May 30 at 5 a.m.: 2 lanes north / 1 lane south

From Friday June 3 at 11 p.m. to Monday June 6 at 5 a.m.: 1 lane north / 2 lanes south

From Friday June 17 at 11 p.m. to Monday June 20 at 5 a.m.: in case of rain

Paving (4 weekends in August):

From Friday August 5 at 11 p.m. to Monday August 8 at 5 a.m.: 2 lanes north / 1 lane south

From Friday August 12 at 11 p.m. to Monday August 15 at 5 a.m.: 1 lane north / 2 lanes south

From Friday August 19 at 11 p.m. to Monday August 22 at 5 a.m.: 1 lane north / 2 lanes south

From Friday August 26 at 11 p.m. to Monday August 29 at 5 a.m.: 2 lanes north / 1 lane south

From Friday September 2 at 11 p.m. to Monday September 5 at 5 a.m.: in case of rain

Please note that we will avoid closures in July due to the fireworks,
which require the complete closure of the Jacques-Cartier Bridge on
Saturday evenings.

As for the Highway 15 roadwork, we anticipate slightly less impact on
traffic since the Bonaventure Highway will allow road users to bypass
the work site to access the bridge or to go towards downtown Montreal.
This particular roadwork has been planned for September, when traffic
becomes more important once again.

Highway 15 - Eastern viaduct (3 weekends in September):

Schedule to come

For more information, to follow the progress of our work or to consult
our calendar, we invite you to visit our blog: www.champlainbridge.ca.